Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, speaks as his committee considers whether to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 20, 2012. In a showdown with President Barack Obama’s administration House Republicans are pressing for more Justice Department documents on the flawed gun-smuggling probe known as Operation Fast and Furious that resulted in hundreds of guns illicitly purchased in Arizona gun shops winding up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Issa pushes back Fast and Furious hearing for DOJ’s inspector general report to next week

House oversight committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa announced on Monday that a Tuesday hearing at which Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz was set to testify about his forthcoming Operation Fast and Furious report has been rescheduled until next week.

The hearing is now scheduled for Sept. 19. “Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz has confirmed his attendance for the September 19th hearing where he will discuss his report of the investigation into reckless conduct in Operation Fast and Furious,” a press release on the House oversight committee’s website reads.

“In a letter to Capitol Hill, Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz said his investigators now must pore over wiretap records, grand jury material and sealed court records to make sure nothing that should not be disclosed is inadvertently included in the final report,” the Los Angeles Times’ Richard Serrano wrote.

Horowitz told Issa that, because of those “legal restrictions, we cannot release the report or discuss its conclusions until the issues arising from this sensitivity review have been resolved.”

In a release announcing the originally-scheduled hearing, Issa said that the coming report on Fast and Furious means President Barack Obama’s and Attorney General Eric Holder’s “excuse for delaying action ends.”

“For a year and a half, Attorney General Eric Holder has cited the ongoing inspector general investigation as his reason for declining to hold those responsible for reckless conduct in Operation Fast and Furious to account,” Issa said.